Before & After: A "Boring" Gray & White Kitchen's $1,500 Makeover Adds Drama

""When Charlotte Hohorst (@chohorst), who owns a gorgeous Los Angeles townhouse, moved into her home, it was far from her taste - especially the "builder-grade, landlord-special kitchen." "Similar to the rest of the apartment, it had ... white walls, fluorescent lights, gray laminate flooring, gray countertops, white appliances, [boring] fixtures, and limited hardware," Charlotte, the vice president of design at a P.R. firm, explains. "Oh, and how could I forget the vertical blinds?! Yikes.""

""Charlotte's redesign began with the color. She found Farrow & Ball's Bancha, a rich olive green, and immediately knew she needed it in her kitchen, especially because it complemented the blue Scalamandré wallpaper in the adjacent dining nook. She admits that she covered "every surface [she] could," by painting the cabinets and applying faux black marble peel-and-stick contact paper to the countertops herself.""

""Then, she applied bright new floor tiles to the dated flooring, which wasn't as easy as the contact paper DIY. "[Adding the peel-and-stick floor tiles] was such a messy process, super hard to get right, and I found the tiles to slip around a lot after I installed them," Charlotte says. "They photograph nicely and alleviated the eyesore of the previous hideous gray laminate, but they're""

Charlotte Hohorst renovated her Los Angeles townhouse kitchen, replacing builder-grade finishes with Farrow & Ball Bancha olive-green cabinets and faux black marble peel-and-stick contact paper on the countertops. She painted cabinets, installed new cabinet hardware, removed vertical blinds, upgraded the sink fixture and pendant light, and coordinated the color with blue Scalamandré wallpaper in the adjacent dining nook. She installed bright peel-and-stick floor tiles despite messy installation and slippage issues; the tiles photograph well and hid the previous gray laminate. The faux-marble counters proved forgiving during installation and have held up against wear and tear.

Read at Apartment Therapy